After many delays the producers of “Of Gods and Men” have finally announced December 22nd at 17:01 EST (5:01 EST) as the release date for part 1 (of 3) of the Internet mini-series. OGaM is one of the most ambitious independent/fan Trek productions to date and is distinguished by having a cast made up almost entirely of professional actors, including Trek veterans such as Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, Alan Ruck, Gary Graham and many others. The film was directed by Voyager’s Tim Russ, who also has a part. The OGaM team also announced they will be using the same technology partners that handled the ‘relaunch’ of the recent Star Trek New Voyages episode, after the initial release was hampered by the demand.
More information in the latest OGaM newsletter and the official site.

I agree that it didn’t look great, but it certainly looks decent. Fan Films have always fascinated me, but I’m glad that they can mostly stay in the area of fandom.

I’m mostly looking forward to seeing Alan Ruck reprise his role as Captain Harriman here. I thought there was some potential with the character: the man who killed Captain Kirk. How would he deal with that? I hope they can delve into this a little bit. As for the other characters, I’m satisfied with where they ended up in TUC and GEN. (However, I do look forward to seeing where they started out.)

It occurs to me though, that THIS is where Bill Shatner should have been Kirk one more time.

So, after watching the trailers way back when, at least a half dozen times, and seeing the first three minutes, does anybody else recognize just who it is that is looking for Kirk? I’ve come to my own conclusion but didn’t know if it was common knowledge and I don’t want to be a spoiler. Pretty sure that he just wants people to like him, though.

I have come to the same conclusion I AM THX-1138. Looking forward to being with some old frends though. Not planning to bash them if everything is just so. Especially since I am going to see it for free at home.
I’m going to appreciate thier efforts and enjoy it for what it is.

#11
Man I’d love to, but
a) I can’t be sure if I’m right. And b) I couldn’t live with myself if I ruined it for someone. Trust me, I eat spoilers like tic-tacs, but I don’t want to be the jerk that yells out the ending to a movie while you’re standing in line to watch it.

This doesn’t really excite me at all. I’ll tune in though, as long as it’s free.

What I really want is the last act of Exeter. Exeter is a prime example of how to use new characters, original music and an original story that still “feels” like TOS. Despite some rough around the edges acting, that’s some damn fine TOS style entertainment I tells ya!

Saw the trailer for this and now have watched the first three minutes…overall, it seems (caveat – from what I’ve seen) amateurish. The sets look great, but it seems like that’s where all the effort went. With so many professional actors in it, i was expecting something more….I don’t know…polished?

It looks like a fan-boy’s wet dream (sorry for being crude) it looks like they stuffed just about everything in there…chekov, harriman, uhura, mirror universe, tuvok, harry kim, just about every alien race that’s ever been in ST, mind melds, old ships, new ships. It’s like they didn’t own an eraser or have a delete button on their computer.

Sometimes, you have to resist trying to have everything, and just concentrate on the best parts of the story.

Again, I’ll hold final judgement until I see the whole thing – but I have to say that I’m not feeling great about this one.

What an excellent Christmas present for ’07 (as we all try to open our ’08 gift early. heheeheheheee — we’re bad little fanboys.)
I give only my highest respect to the people who must have sweat blood to make this happen. You did this for love, and you can always have a great movie to be proud of.
WHEN are the other parts expected???

Look at how much work, money, effort, blood and tears it take to BORE me. I mean all these people write a script, used their own money and time in a labor of love just so I can be bored. Amazing. A for effort!

I’ve always had mixed feelings about fan productions. Some of them aren’t so good.

Few will ever be on par with a “real” production. “Star Wars: Broken Allegiance” comes to mind as being one that came close (I haven’t watched too many for a few years).

Of the “big” Star Trek ones I’m giving the edge to Exeter. Original characters, same look and feel as the original – I’m sold. A little bit of some choppy acting here and there (these people are doing it for the love of it and have real jobs on top of this). The New Voyages is alright, but I think far too much effort has been put into those productions (including hype around the releases) to the point where they just can’t live up to it. Still leaps and bounds better than most others out there.

A lot of fans have the right vision, but just can’t do a decent execution. Personally if you can’t keep these things in mind you have no business watching these films because you’ll always end up disappointed by “something” someone did wrong.

I’m looking forward to OGAM, mainly because it has the one thing that has just killed a lot of other fan efforts for me: professional actors. Yes, some of the performers in other fan productions are good, but for me, bad / amateurish acting pulls me out of the story much more severely than bad effects, bad sets, or even bad writing. So I’m intrigued to see how this one compares. If the performances are good (and the story reasonably interesting), I can easily forgive other technical lapses.

make your own fan film, mark 2000. I’ll watch it with admiration for all the effort and care you lavish upon it. looking forward to your stellar casting and FX.”

Here’s the thing with independent and fan videos on the Internet: you understand going in that you’re not targeting a “market” of tens of millions of passive consumers, and that in addition to however many people do find and enjoy your show you’ll be exposed to the jeers and complaints of a lot of folks who use the web as a platform to spew.

It’s niche programming in the extreme. A lot of people enjoy community theater, but the vast majority don’t care and don’t attend – it’s a given in that arena.

The other thing that’s true is that an inordinate percentage of the complainers on the Internet consider their “criticisms” to have some value to either the creators of these things or to other viewers. Of course a few do – but in the main these folks are no more detached or realistic in their self-assessments than are the participants in the video projects – the bar’s simply set a lot lower for “critics.”

I hope my comment wasn’t percieved as “bashing.” It was an honest evaluation of what I’ve seen so far. Agreed, fan films, especially ones like this get an “A” for effort. As I said, the sets look great, and you have to give people credit for putting something this ambitious together on shoestring budgets – but while effort is great to spark interest, it’s quality that keeps people coming back.

Like I said, I wish (and again, I say this completely based on ONLY what I’ve seen so far) that this film, and other fan films, wouldn’t try to cram so much in. We get that they are fans, we get that they have a deep knowledge of the subject, but it doesn’t have to look like the floor of a convention. Not everything cool (and some stuff that’s not so “cool”) about Star Trek has to be in one film.

#36:
thanks dennis, well said as always.
i suppose i get outraged when i see how lovingly fanfilms are produced, regardless of percieved quality, then watch them be critiqued by unrealistic standards.
it feels rather like backyard bullying to me: little jimmy’s treehouse spaceship doesn’t look exactly like the one on tv, so let’s tear it down!

I perfer Exeter to NV. I find it hard to suspend disbelief seeing a mix of actors who played the parts for years vs. those who are just young guys ‘pretending’ to be them. I’ve always said it would be great to see the adventures of one of the other 11 Starships that would have been on missions of exploration during the time of the original trek. The actors on Exeter are ‘new’ to me and it’s not easy to accept them as the characters, not having seen them for so many years previously.

On Exeter, they’ve done a great job during their second episode, making the whole deal feel as it were the ‘real’ star trek.

I felt the same way when I first saw Exeter, which was a big reason that I wanted to be involved in it.

“Star Trek” first happened when I was a fairly young kid, and I and a few friends (who, as far as we could tell, were the only people in the world *watching* the show :lol: ) used to play Trek – we made up our own ship and characters (this is 1966) and so on based on the clear indications on the show that there were at least a dozen ships similar to the Enterprise. So I found the whole Exeter vibe really easy to relate to on that childhood level.

Wow Dennis you bring up memories. My brothers and maybe some neighbor kids on occassion would play STAR TREK as kids. We were catching the first reruns in the early 70’s, which inspired are craziness. We actually had sweatshirts that looked a bit like the shirts on the two TOS pilots of THE CAGE and WNMHGB. We used those STAR TREK tracer pistols (we really had some wild wars in rooms with those;) as our weapons. They looked nothing like phasers, which even as kids bugged us. ;)Now in the last 15 years you have had great STAR TREK props kids can buy at stores. Man the kids of today so spoiled with the gear. ;) Of course most will play their STAR TREK on a screen where as we ran around in the fields and forest. ;)

One other note. My one brother and I even tried to do a STAR TREK audio production as kids. I recall it was a shuttle adventure as I was splicing dialogue and sounds from THE GALILEO SEVEN. We played other crew members. The rest of it was plan as you go and it did not go too far. Funny thinking about it. I sometimes wonder why I am not involved with an actual STAR TREK production be it fan or pro sometimes. ;) Oh the memories…

Good news but this site really stiffed Exeter. Not even a peep on Act III

I personally prefer Exeter to any of the other fanfilms and the latest installment has thus far had television quality effects (Dirty Dennis) and a very compelling story, the acting has also improved a great deal. Considering they don’t have ex-Trek and Spinoff Trek stars and production members involved and to my mind have produced a far superior product thus far I think they should be commended. These people are fans just like us, not aspiring actors, singers, writers or pals with Walter Koenig. They are us!! and The Tressurian Intersection to me fits perfectly into the TOS universe, Production values, Effects, Sites, and this time around even the acting.
I would love to see some sort of nod to Exeter’s team I’m sure Dennis could arrange it.

I second Lord Garth on that. It seems there should of been or should be at least an story posted here talking about or a review of the EXETER that is out. Or maybe when ACT IV is released this site can cover the latest and maybe the (last?) episode of this fine production. I am a big EXETER fan myself!

Well, it’s hard to fairly do a review of something that’s not finished. When we release Act Four (I understand it’s currently scheduled for about three days before Duke Nukem 4 as someone observed uptopic) we’ll see a little more promotion from various sites online.

Star Trek tracer pistols – shot those little plastic discs. I had one – a blue-and-brown one – and the kid who played the Captain had the green-and-black one (we figured they were keyed to the uniform colors, as best we could pick those out from the stills in TV Guide. Wasn’t like either of us had a color TV set).

I had those tracer pistols too, but I preferred the hand-carved wooden phaser 2 I cajoled my grandfather into making for me!
Exeter really brings back the feeling of seeing the classic eps for the first time. Can’t wait for act 4, but I’m WILLING to wait- for quality stuff.
Any plans on enabeling downloads of it in the future?

All this talk of playing Trek and especially the statement Dennis made about how “Star Trek” first happened when I was a fairly young kid, and I and a few friends (who, as far as we could tell, were the only people in the world *watching* the show “, brings me to an interesting observation. My friends, in my neighbothood, and I were exactly the same way.

Unlike new fans of Trek who are fully aware of the phenomenon and the movies and the books and comics and fandom and conventions etc, back then, although this was the early 70’s, me and my friends were captivated by this show, watched it, played it, quoted it, and looked forward to it daily…with absolutely no knowledge that the same thing was happening, and had happened, to other kids all over the country. We thought we were alone in digging this very cool show.

It was so cool to grow and discover the whole universe of books and fandom that existed without our knowledge. I think it’s a true testament to the quality and magic of this show, the way that it was able to tap into so many minds…all independent of one another, without the aid of the internet or DVD’s or fan magazines etc etc. and make such an incredible impression.

TOS came onto the scene without all the trappings… just one hour of fun TV, after school, every day, and slowly it captured the young imaginative minds of a generation, one kid at a time….all over the country. That’s some powerful medicine that Roddenberry cooked up. 30 years later and I’m still addicted!

“It was so cool to grow and discover the whole universe of books and fandom that existed without our knowledge. I think it’s a true testament to the quality and magic of this show, the way that it was able to tap into so many minds…all independent of one another, without the aid of the internet or DVD’s or fan magazines etc etc. and make such an incredible impression.”

Man, you said it. The first time I attended one of Bjo Trimble’s Equicons here in Southern California I was literally awestruck at the number of people who shared what even I thought of at the time as such a weird obsession with a television space opera. It was simply our love for the show’s characters, its technology and idealism that brought us together, not any perception that it was some kind of cultural phenomenon. Good times. . .

What I personally find so disheartening about fandom today is that it seems that many still like the franchise for its characters and technology, but care little one way or the other for its optimistic take on the human condition. Maybe that’s just the times we live in, but I still find it pretty sad, as, I’m sure, would Gene Roddenberry.

Michael Hall, I second your take, about “many still like the franchise for its characters and technology, but care little one way or the other for its optimistic take on the human condition.” Often I think fan films attempt to simply emulate the real thing, or throw tons of effects at it, which is unnecessary. I like what New Voyages has done, because they are attempting to do a series, and are soft on effects. Granted much of the acting is not up to par, but oh well.

As for the topic at hand, I am looking forward to STOGAM, but jeez, the snail’s pace in releasing it in full is really ridiculous.

I’m looking forward to OGaM since the effects seem to be styled after Battlestar Galactica – that hand held documentary look – and I really dig that for some reason.

But for what’s it’s worth, I think Exeter has pull off the consumate TOS look and feel. It’s really an amazing effort considering everyone is volunteer. All you need is the patience of Job (which I have – that’s why I think CBSD should have only released 8 or so remasterd episoides a season and done them right!)

My least favorite is New Voyages – though it too is an amazing effort and enjoyable once you get past the Kirk / Elvis thing going on there – wha-huh.

Hey Stank – unfortunately – since OGaM’s angle is to have all the out of work actors from the previous series / movies in the cast, they have to fashion thier story around the existing characters. So guys like Walt Koenig get to do their thing. New Voyages fell into that same trap.

That’s why I like Exeter. They are free to truly go where no Trek fan series as gone before because they are not comitted to TOS characters to tell their stories, but are comitted to the look and feel of the original series.

I remember when I was about 12, in the early seventies, I had no idea that ST was popular with anyone else. I just knew I loved it. In fact, I wrote a fan letter to Nimoy and I said something to the effect that I was probably the only one writing to him, and would he drop be back a line! Boy was I ignorant. I didn’t find out about the fan movement until I got the two books by David Gerrold and joined the fan club he ran.